A program is tucked inside an officer's hat. Funeral services for McHenry County Deputy Sheriff Jacob Keltner is held at Woodstock North High School on Wednesday, March 13, 2019.

Photo provided by Richard A. Chapman

Caption

A funeral service for McHenry County Deputy Sheriff Jacob Keltner is held at Woodstock North High School on Wednesday, March 13, 2019.

Scott P. Yates

Caption

Law enforcement officers pause while a color guard passes by the front door before funeral services for slain McHenry County Sheriff's Deputy Jacob Keltner on Wednesday, March 13, 2019, at Woodstock North High School in Woodstock Ill. Keltner was shot and killed while trying to serve an arrest warrant at a hotel on March 7, 2019. (Scott P. Yates/Rockford Register Star via AP)

Thousands of law enforcement officials, first responders and family members filled Woodstock North High School Wednesday morning as the funeral for fallen McHenry County Sheriff’s Deputy Jacob Keltner took place.

Keltner, 35, of Crystal Lake, was shot and killed Thursday, March 7, while attempting to serve a warrant to a known fugitive at a Rockford hotel. He was a member of the U.S Marshall’s Service Great Lakes Regional Fugitive Task Force, which is comprised of multiple deputies from various departments across the region.

It was a position he had vied for as he worked his way up the ladder in his career, McHenry County Sheriff Bill Prim said during the service Wednesday.

A team of law enforcement officers carried up an American flag-draped casket containing the fallen deputy as the funeral began. Pictures of Keltner with his wife Becki Keltner and their two young boys Caleb and Carson were displayed at the front of the gym at Woodstock North High School.

First responders and police officers from across Illinois were in attendance including officers from McHenry County Sheriff's Office, Loves Park, Rockford, Belvidere, Carol Stream, Beloit, Cary, Schiller Park police departments; Illinois State Police; Lake, Boone, Cook and DuPage county sheriff's departments, among others.

Rev. Kendall Koenig, a senior pastor with Light of Christ Lutheran Church in Algonquin led the ceremony. He shed light on Keltner’s life beyond the badge. Prim and two of Keltner’s partners on the task force also gave remembrance at the ceremony.

Urgo remembered “dark cold mornings” in back alleys and afternoons with “no end in sight” while out on assignment with Keltner, he said. Keltner was assigned to the force as his partner in 2014, he said.

“We were prepared for what could have happened,” Urgo said. “I wish that day didn’t happen. I am deeply saddened by the tragedy, and we are humbled to stand before you on this day that shouldn’t have happened.”

Penna fought tears as he spoke to the crowd and expressed his love for the Keltner family.

“We have seen some stuff together,” he said of his work on the task force with Keltner. “I can tell you there was no better fugitive investigator or police officer better than Jake.”
Keltner had the “most recognizable,” gregarious belly laugh that Penna has ever heard, he said.

“We will forever cherish his friendship and memory,” Penna said. “This is a tragic and devastating day.”

Penna told Keltner’s wife, Becki, to trust in “the Lord, your family and the ’thin blue line."
Keltner was a Western Illinois University graduate who began working with the McHenry County Sheriff’s Office in 2006. He moved his way rapidly up the career ladder as he took on more and more challenging and high-profile cases, the sheriff said.

Life is a gift. Keltner’s was cut short, but not wasted, Prim said.

“Our lives, whether we like it or not, have a ripple effect on those around us,” Prim said. “Jake Keltner created not just a ripple but a wave of goodness and light. That is all we can hope to achieve in life.”

Rev. Koenig delivered the message after remembrances had concluded.

“This is the last place any of us want to be today,” he said. “There are no words that can quickly heal our broken hearts. There is no music that can fully soothe our hurting spirits. There are no acts of kindness that can instantly make this better.”

But by those actions is how the healing will begin to take place, he said.

Already recognized as a fierce and courageous law enforcement officer, Koenig shed more light on who Keltner was as a person.

“We remember Jake in a wider sense,” he said. “As husband and son, a father and brother, a friend and neighbor.”

Keltner was the oldest of three brothers, and his father was also in law enforcement. He wanted to become either a solider or police officer since he was young. His bravery was cultivated, the pastor said.

He was an artist who drew his own tattoos, he challenged the people around him to try new things, and was a “baby whisperer” who could calm crying infants and rowdy toddlers like no one else, Koenig said.

“In this line of work you have to develop a tough shell,” Koenig said. “But when he got home, he did his best to hang that shell on the coat rack and engage with the boys and Becki with a tender heart.”

As recently as the week before he died, he had built zip lines for his sons in the basement and had their toys “zipping all around” like hot wheel tracks in the air.

The pastor encourage Keltner’s sons to ask for help in the future, and remember that their father loved them.

“We aren’t heroes because of how we die,” he said. “We are heroes because of how we live. Jake lived it.”